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Manager John Gibbons made it clear on Friday that should the Blue Jays be fortunate enough to survive the pennant race in September and make it to the playoffs for the second season in a row, right-hander Aaron Sanchez will be one of his starting pitchers in October.

“We’ll reload a little bit in September with the call-ups,” Gibbons said. “As far as who’s doing what, we’re not sure yet — but you’re not going to see Sanchez coming out of the ’pen. He’s got all those innings under his belt now. That ain’t going to happen.”

Recall that the 24-year-old Sanchez was optioned to Class-A Dunedin to not pitch, and will have served 10 days in the minors in time to return and start the series finale at Camden Yards against the Orioles next Wednesday. It’s unclear whether the Jays will then stay with a six-man rotation.

Even though Gibbons feels he can speak about October plans, there is no guarantee the idea of Sanchez skipping another start or pushing the talented youngster back a few days won’t resurface one more time after rosters expand. He won’t need to be optioned. But come crunch time down the stretch he will be starting. Remember that with built-in post-season off-days, playoff rotations are cut to four.

Gibbons explained, with the benefit of hindsight, the 2015 decision that saw Sanchez, who began the season as a starter but suffered an injury, return to his successful eighth-inning role.

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“I’ve always believed, like everyone else, he’d be a really good starter,” Gibbons said. “I didn’t think it would happen as fast as it did. It started to show last year. Then he went down with the lat (injury). Really, we brought him back last year pitching out of the ’pen to get him back quicker. It might have taken another couple of weeks to get him starting, and we desperately needed help in the pen.”

Sanchez has come a long way, in his manager’s view and in the view of all MLB, which greeted with a universal thumbs-down the concept of returning Sanchez to the bullpen after the acquisition of Francisco Liriano. But there was a point earlier in the season, in late May, when Gibbons was the one leading the internal charge to reconvert Sanchez to a reliever. His middle relief was awful.

“This year everyone (in the spring) wanted to see him as a starter, and then he just got off to a great start and was rolling along, dominating,” Gibbons explained. “I can’t remember any particular time that changed my opinion. I just thought (a return to the bullpen) was going to happen naturally. He’d get to a point, then he’d go down there and do what he did the last couple of years, but then he was just so dominating, you go ‘Damn, I’m not sure if this is the right move or not.’ ”

Recall that the opening day bullpen included Arnold Leon, Drew Storen, Gavin Floyd and Jesse Chavez, as well as three constants throughout the first five months: Roberto Osuna, Brett Cecil and Joe Biagini. Former Nationals closer Storen was an unnatural disaster, but — using some pretzel logic to seek a positive — it can be argued that optimism about Storen allowed for Sanchez to compete for a spot in the opening day rotation, which is what he truly wanted.

The bullpen was awful, but then they traded for Jason Grilli on May 31 and Joaquin Benoit close to the deadline. Veteran Scott Feldman replaced Chavez in the long reliever’s role. Grilli and Benoit, each 39 years old, have imported real stability to the seventh and eighth innings, rendering moot the need to yank Sanchez from a starting role.

Benoit explains what he and Grilli bring.

“We still have to do our job,” Benoit said. “It doesn’t mean that because we’re veterans we’re going to succeed. We probably have a little bit of knowledge, what we want to do and what we’re trying to do, but we still have to throw the ball and try to hit our spots. It’s not about being a veteran or a rookie. It’s having the knowledge and being in the game for so long. It gives you a bit of an advantage on the young guys, but you can pass it on too.”

Benoit, like every pitcher who has been in the Jays’ bullpen over the past two seasons, can’t help but marvel at what the closer Osuna has brought to the ninth-inning table at the age of 21.

“That’s impressive,” said the former Rangers, Rays, Tigers, Padres and Mariners pitcher. “He’s really mature. For a 21-year-old, taking in the closing role and doing what he’s doing is impressive. I tip my hat to him. Keep doing what he’s doing. We’re not going to try and change him, because I believe he knows what he’s doing and everything works out right now.”

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